Mola Workshop with Isabella Tonchi

The Craft in America Center will host this workshop for Textile Arts Los Angeles.

Spend a day in community learning a traditional hand sewing technique. This is a hands-on craft and requires using a needle and thread. All materials are provided: colorful cotton fabrics, sewing needles, thread, scissors, templates.

About Isabella Tonchi

Isabella Tonchi was born in Florence, Italy, into a family of Florentine linen merchants. From an early age, she was immersed in a world of fine fabrics and handcrafted embroidery, which became her primary means of creative expression.

The originality of her work attracted the attention of the fashion world, leading her to pursue a career as a fashion designer. Throughout her career, Tonchi has been drawn more to the artistic and craft-oriented aspects of fashion than to its elitist and purely aesthetic dimensions.

While she has enjoyed a long and successful career in the fashion industry, her greatest passion remains the tactile, hands-on process of working directly with fabric. Over the past decade, she has shifted her focus toward craft and textile art, combining her extensive international experience—gained through travel and collaboration with local textile artisans—with her personal research in fabric manipulation.

Isabella learned to create Molas directly from the women who live and work on the San Blas Islands near Panama.

About Molas

For centuries, the Guna (previously known as Kuna), an Indigenous group residing in Panama and parts of neighboring Colombia, have been creating colorfully embroidered clothing. A mola, which translates to “shirt” in the Guna language, is a piece of traditional dress typically worn by women and known for its bright colors and intricate designs depicting flowers, birds, reptiles, animals and other emblems indicative of Mother Nature. The textile art began in the San Blas Islands, an archipelago off the northern coast of Panama that’s part of the Guna Yala Region, where many Guna people continue to live.”
—Britannica website

The workshop has filled. Please contact Textile Arts LA to be put on a wait list.

Workshop fee: $125.00 and includes all materials.

Creative Perspectives with Ferne Jacobs

This small group workshop will be for anyone who has taken beginning fiber techniques previously. Those who have learned weaving and off-loom fiber techniques from other teachers are welcome. The intention is for students to be working on a piece of their choice or starting one from scratch. The group will discuss creative approaches for pushing the piece forward and each person will receive individual attention.

Ferne will work with students for the day, advancing the skills from various techniques the students have already learned. Basic technique will not be taught. Discussion and exploration of the creative process and development of forms will be the focus, expanding the technical knowledge already gained.

Students will provide their own materials.

The workshop fee is $125.00. Limit of 9 students. Email rsvp@craftinamerica.org to be placed on a waiting list if the class fills.

Parking: Since most of the parking in the area has a two hour limit, the most convenient option is to pay to park at the Beverly Connection less than a block west on W. Third Street. Handicapped parking is available behind Freehand.

Free Friends & Families Drop-In Day: May

Craft in America Invites you and your young ones to participate in our Friends & Families Drop-In Day on May 16, 2026 from 1:00 pm to 5:30 pm.

On this special community day, participants will be guided to discover the history and craftsmanship behind the evolution of the skateboard in this hands-on, all-ages experience!

Get creative as you create your own skateboard designs, piece together inventive builds, and put your creativity, design, and craftsmanship skills to the test through mixed media deck art, scavenger hunts, crossword puzzles, word searches, and skateboard trivia!

We hope to see you this month for some fun mixed media, skateboard deck designing! The Craft in America Center (West Hollywood adjacent) is open Tuesday-Saturday, from 12-6 pm.

Craft Circle May

The Craft in America Center has been holding a recurring Craft Circle gathering. This is a time to work on a smallish handwork project in community with others. Please bring a relatively mess-free project that doesn’t require a lot of clean up. Examples include: embroidery, watercolor, quilting, crochet, ceramic sgraffito, etc.

Free to all ages! Maximum of 15 attendees.

Free Friends & Families Drop-In Day: April

Craft in America Invites you and your young ones to participate in our Friends & Families Drop-In Day on April 25, 2026 from 1:00 pm to 5:30 pm.

On this special community day, participants will be guided to discover the history and craftsmanship behind the evolution of the skateboard in this hands-on, all-ages experience!

Get creative as you create your own skateboard designs, piece together inventive builds, and put your engineering, design, and craftsmanship skills to the test through mixed media deck art, scavenger hunts, word searches, and skateboard trivia!

We hope to see you this month for some fun mixed media, skateboard deck designing! The Craft in America Center (West Hollywood adjacent) is open Tuesday-Saturday, from 12-6 pm.

Creative Perspectives with Ferne Jacobs

This small group workshop will be for anyone who has taken beginning fiber techniques previously. Those who have learned weaving and off-loom fiber techniques from other teachers are welcome. The intention is for students to be working on a piece of their choice or starting one from scratch. The group will discuss creative approaches for pushing the piece forward and each person will receive individual attention.

Ferne will work with students for the day, advancing the skills from various techniques the students have already learned. Basic technique will not be taught. Discussion and exploration of the creative process and development of forms will be the focus, expanding the technical knowledge already gained.

Students will provide their own materials.

The workshop fee is $125.00. Limit of 9 students.

Parking: Since most of the parking in the area has a two hour limit, the most convenient option is to pay to park at the Beverly Connection less than a block west on W. Third Street. Handicapped parking is available behind Freehand.

Free Family Drop-In Day: February

Tools of the Trades Exhibition:
Handmade Implements and Devices

Craft in America invites you and your young ones to participate in our free Family Drop-In Day on February 21, 2026 from 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm.

On this special drop-in workshop day, participants will be guided to create beautiful cardboard customizable tools inspired by our Tools of the Trades: Handmade Implements and Devices exhibition.

Craft in America will provide a guided, cardboard tool making activity as well as a variety of activity sheets for visitors ages 2-17. These games and drawing prompts encourage creativity and curiosity within our gallery spaces.

We hope to see you this month for some fun cardboard tool making! The Craft in America Center (West Hollywood adjacent) is open Tuesday-Saturday, from 12-6 pm.

Creative Perspectives with Ferne Jacobs

This small group workshop will be for anyone who has taken beginning fiber techniques previously. Those who have learned weaving and off-loom fiber techniques from other teachers are welcome. The intention is for students to be working on a piece of their choice or starting one from scratch. The group will discuss creative approaches for pushing the piece forward and each person will receive individual attention. This session will focus on color use.

Ferne will work with students for the day, advancing the skills from various techniques the students have already learned. Basic technique will not be taught. Discussion and exploration of the creative process and development of forms will be the focus, expanding the technical knowledge already gained.

Students will provide their own materials.

The workshop fee is $125.00. Limit of 9 students.

Parking: Since most of the parking in the area has a two hour limit, the most convenient option is to pay to park at the Beverly Connection less than a block west on W. Third Street. Handicapped parking is available behind Freehand.

Craft Circle December

The Craft in America Center has been holding a recurring Craft Circle gathering. This is a time to work on a smallish handwork project in community with others. Please bring a relatively mess-free project that doesn’t require a lot of clean up. Examples include: embroidery, watercolor, quilting, crochet, ceramic sgraffito, etc.

Free to all ages! Maximum of 15 attendees.

Creative Perspectives with Ferne Jacobs

This small group workshop will be for anyone who has taken beginning fiber techniques previously. Those who have learned weaving and off-loom fiber techniques from other teachers are welcome. The intention is for students to be working on a piece of their choice or starting one from scratch. The group will discuss creative approaches for pushing the piece forward and each person will receive individual attention.

Ferne will work with students for the day, advancing the skills from various techniques the students have already learned. Basic technique will not be taught. Discussion and exploration of the creative process and development of forms will be the focus, expanding the technical knowledge already gained.

Students will provide their own materials.

The workshop fee is $125.00. Limit of 9 students.

Parking: Since most of the parking in the area has a two hour limit, the most convenient option is to pay to park at the Beverly Connection less than a block west on W. Third Street. Handicapped parking is available behind Freehand.